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appt/^^oIioat/3
4 iieiv attitude
Liberal Studies professor brings a new sensibility to UW Bothell
"Young man, if you're ever going to be a political writer, there's one thing you'd better renumber. Never let the facts get in your way." — Edward T. Folliard, Washington Post reporter
The Smr^tNi Ntu^PAPFR
OF THE
UNivERsrn OF W,\SHINGTON Biyinui
VOLI'ME 2
Issue 9
Dk FMBFR 10, 1996
Is Santa sup
posedi
beamnt
t^
Richard Huffman Editor in ChTef
Santa. He's fat, he's jolly, his tummy shakes like a "bowlful of jelly." Buy how exactly does he fit down a chimney? Chimneys are usually so narrow that big jolly Santa shouldn't even be able to fit his big jolly forearm down a chim¬ ney, let alone his whole jolly body. So how does Santa shimmy down all those chimneys?
Because he's a runt. He's not just small, he's tiny. If you don't believe it, reread Clement Moore's famous poem, A Visit From St. Nicho¬ las (it's often called "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"). Verse two reads, "Then what to my wondering eyes should appear, A miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. A little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick." Read on to find that Santa is in fact, "a right jolly old elf "Santa is probably only one foot tall.
But Santa isn't the only Chrismias tradition to be misimderstood. Upon closer inspection, many basic assumptions that we have about the Christ¬ mas season turn out to be wrong. Read on.
It's too early to open presents Many
families that celebrate Christmas will exchange their presents early Christmas morning. Other families however, will dole out the presents on the night before Christmas. "But you're ruin¬ ing Christmas by opening your presents the night before," cry the first set of families.
Guess what. They're wrong. Christmas Eve is part of Christmas Day, or at least it used to be. Since the advent of clocks we have divided our days in 24 hour increments. Each day now ends and the next one begins at midnight, but it wasn't always that way. What we think of as the end of the day, "the evening," used to be thought of as the beginning of the day. When the sun went down, the next day began. Christ¬ mas Eve was the 'official' start of Christmas Day, not the day before.
Love and X'S As irrationally upset as some people can become over the thought exchang¬ ing gifts on Christmas Eve, it can't hold a candle to how upset some people become over the re¬ cent use of the term "Xmas" for "Christmas." It's just so... sacrilegious.
Actually, writing "Christmas" as "Xmas" isn't so new, and it isn't so secular. The 12th Cen¬ tury Old English word for Christmas, says Tom Burman in The Dictionary of Misinformation, began with X. In fact the X in "Xmas" is said to be derived from the Greek letter "chi," or X, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. "Xmas" has a long and appropriately religious heritage.
llMTy Christmas, tt's T-shirt weather
Christmas is celebrated around the world on December 25, the supposed anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. The truth be told how¬ ever, we have no idea when Jesus was born. We don't even know what year he was born, al¬
though histori¬ ans seems to agree it was somewhere berween 6 Bc; and 4 BC. If his birthday were on December 25, it would have come smack in the middle of Ancient Judea's rainy season, and the shepherds would prob¬ ably not have been tending their sheep, as the Bible suggests. Modern historical theologians feel that Jesus was probably born in October or November. Some feel that he may have been born as early as July.
The tradition of celebrating Christmas on De¬ cember 25 dates back to Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Accord¬ ing to Douglas B. Smith's More Ever Wonder Why December 25 was the day when Romans cel¬ ebrated the Pagan holiday "The Day of the In¬ vincible Sun," which celebrated the god Mithras. By replacing Mithras' day with Christ's day, Constantine was symbolically telling Romans that Christ had replaced Mithras as the true God.
It wasn't until the fourth century that people even began to celebrate birthdays. If anything, the date of death may have been commemo¬ rated for a particularly noted person, but never a birth date.
Oh and I suppose he wasn't bom in
Bethleham Nope, at least according to Se¬ atde author Richard Shenkman. In his book Leg¬ ends, Lies and Cherished Myths ofWorld History,
Shenkman says that Jesus Christ "was almost certainly born in Nazereth."
According to the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary left their home of Nazereth to register for the Roman census in Bethleham. In Bethleham Mary gave birth to Jesus in a manger, because there was no room at the inn.
Unfortunately modern historians have had trouble coming up with records of a Roman census even taking place during those years, and the Romans were notoriously complete record- keepers. Modern scholars sf>eculate that the au¬ thors of the Gosf>els shifted Jesus' birth place in order to better convince people that he was the true Messiah. In those times it was com¬ monly believed that the Messiah would be born in the town of Bethleham, because that is where
See Santa on page 2
New campus plans unveiled last week
photo by Ricfiaro Hu^fma^
knd thie i» where the new Commons Newspaper office will go Architect Cathy Simon
aescnbed the proposed plans for the neu BotheU campus, set tc open 'ts doors in Fall 1999
Richard Huffman Editor in Chief
Preliminar)' plans for the new UW Bothell campus were unveiled last week to an audience of L'W Bothell staff and instructors. Several architects and planners were on hand to present slides, blucprims and scale models of the new campus
The Seattle firm of Mahium & Nordfors. McKinley Gordon is the lead architects on the project. Several other firms have been hired t<> ton- suit in the process, including Simon. Martin-V'egiie. VC'inkelstein. .\1oris, a leading San Francisco firm (]athy Si¬ mon, principal in the firm was one of the presenters at last ^X'ednesdays meeting.
L'^' Bothell will be co-located wirh the brand new Cascadia Com¬
munity (!!ollege. The new campus will be located just off rhe 1-405 freeway, where it intersects with SR 522. The state of Washington has purchased several large plots of land at the site, which together will house a campus that is expected to have iipw.irds of 10,000 students attending at the two schools by the vear 2010.
The plins shown at the meeting .^re much different than prelimmar)' plans prepared last year by NBB|. a .Seattle architecture firm hired w cre¬ ate a "master plan. The NBBJ plant had a large central green space, with the U^' Bothell (Campus and the (Cascadia C.C. at cither side. The in¬ tention was to give each schools a strong separate identity.
The latest plans call for a more unified approach to the site, with the rvs'o campuses being ph\'sically linked.

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appt/^^oIioat/3
4 iieiv attitude
Liberal Studies professor brings a new sensibility to UW Bothell
"Young man, if you're ever going to be a political writer, there's one thing you'd better renumber. Never let the facts get in your way." — Edward T. Folliard, Washington Post reporter
The Smr^tNi Ntu^PAPFR
OF THE
UNivERsrn OF W,\SHINGTON Biyinui
VOLI'ME 2
Issue 9
Dk FMBFR 10, 1996
Is Santa sup
posedi
beamnt
t^
Richard Huffman Editor in ChTef
Santa. He's fat, he's jolly, his tummy shakes like a "bowlful of jelly." Buy how exactly does he fit down a chimney? Chimneys are usually so narrow that big jolly Santa shouldn't even be able to fit his big jolly forearm down a chim¬ ney, let alone his whole jolly body. So how does Santa shimmy down all those chimneys?
Because he's a runt. He's not just small, he's tiny. If you don't believe it, reread Clement Moore's famous poem, A Visit From St. Nicho¬ las (it's often called "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"). Verse two reads, "Then what to my wondering eyes should appear, A miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. A little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick." Read on to find that Santa is in fact, "a right jolly old elf "Santa is probably only one foot tall.
But Santa isn't the only Chrismias tradition to be misimderstood. Upon closer inspection, many basic assumptions that we have about the Christ¬ mas season turn out to be wrong. Read on.
It's too early to open presents Many
families that celebrate Christmas will exchange their presents early Christmas morning. Other families however, will dole out the presents on the night before Christmas. "But you're ruin¬ ing Christmas by opening your presents the night before," cry the first set of families.
Guess what. They're wrong. Christmas Eve is part of Christmas Day, or at least it used to be. Since the advent of clocks we have divided our days in 24 hour increments. Each day now ends and the next one begins at midnight, but it wasn't always that way. What we think of as the end of the day, "the evening," used to be thought of as the beginning of the day. When the sun went down, the next day began. Christ¬ mas Eve was the 'official' start of Christmas Day, not the day before.
Love and X'S As irrationally upset as some people can become over the thought exchang¬ ing gifts on Christmas Eve, it can't hold a candle to how upset some people become over the re¬ cent use of the term "Xmas" for "Christmas." It's just so... sacrilegious.
Actually, writing "Christmas" as "Xmas" isn't so new, and it isn't so secular. The 12th Cen¬ tury Old English word for Christmas, says Tom Burman in The Dictionary of Misinformation, began with X. In fact the X in "Xmas" is said to be derived from the Greek letter "chi," or X, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. "Xmas" has a long and appropriately religious heritage.
llMTy Christmas, tt's T-shirt weather
Christmas is celebrated around the world on December 25, the supposed anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. The truth be told how¬ ever, we have no idea when Jesus was born. We don't even know what year he was born, al¬
though histori¬ ans seems to agree it was somewhere berween 6 Bc; and 4 BC. If his birthday were on December 25, it would have come smack in the middle of Ancient Judea's rainy season, and the shepherds would prob¬ ably not have been tending their sheep, as the Bible suggests. Modern historical theologians feel that Jesus was probably born in October or November. Some feel that he may have been born as early as July.
The tradition of celebrating Christmas on De¬ cember 25 dates back to Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Accord¬ ing to Douglas B. Smith's More Ever Wonder Why December 25 was the day when Romans cel¬ ebrated the Pagan holiday "The Day of the In¬ vincible Sun," which celebrated the god Mithras. By replacing Mithras' day with Christ's day, Constantine was symbolically telling Romans that Christ had replaced Mithras as the true God.
It wasn't until the fourth century that people even began to celebrate birthdays. If anything, the date of death may have been commemo¬ rated for a particularly noted person, but never a birth date.
Oh and I suppose he wasn't bom in
Bethleham Nope, at least according to Se¬ atde author Richard Shenkman. In his book Leg¬ ends, Lies and Cherished Myths ofWorld History,
Shenkman says that Jesus Christ "was almost certainly born in Nazereth."
According to the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary left their home of Nazereth to register for the Roman census in Bethleham. In Bethleham Mary gave birth to Jesus in a manger, because there was no room at the inn.
Unfortunately modern historians have had trouble coming up with records of a Roman census even taking place during those years, and the Romans were notoriously complete record- keepers. Modern scholars sf>eculate that the au¬ thors of the Gosf>els shifted Jesus' birth place in order to better convince people that he was the true Messiah. In those times it was com¬ monly believed that the Messiah would be born in the town of Bethleham, because that is where
See Santa on page 2
New campus plans unveiled last week
photo by Ricfiaro Hu^fma^
knd thie i» where the new Commons Newspaper office will go Architect Cathy Simon
aescnbed the proposed plans for the neu BotheU campus, set tc open 'ts doors in Fall 1999
Richard Huffman Editor in Chief
Preliminar)' plans for the new UW Bothell campus were unveiled last week to an audience of L'W Bothell staff and instructors. Several architects and planners were on hand to present slides, blucprims and scale models of the new campus
The Seattle firm of Mahium & Nordfors. McKinley Gordon is the lead architects on the project. Several other firms have been hired t<> ton- suit in the process, including Simon. Martin-V'egiie. VC'inkelstein. .\1oris, a leading San Francisco firm (]athy Si¬ mon, principal in the firm was one of the presenters at last ^X'ednesdays meeting.
L'^' Bothell will be co-located wirh the brand new Cascadia Com¬
munity (!!ollege. The new campus will be located just off rhe 1-405 freeway, where it intersects with SR 522. The state of Washington has purchased several large plots of land at the site, which together will house a campus that is expected to have iipw.irds of 10,000 students attending at the two schools by the vear 2010.
The plins shown at the meeting .^re much different than prelimmar)' plans prepared last year by NBB|. a .Seattle architecture firm hired w cre¬ ate a "master plan. The NBBJ plant had a large central green space, with the U^' Bothell (Campus and the (Cascadia C.C. at cither side. The in¬ tention was to give each schools a strong separate identity.
The latest plans call for a more unified approach to the site, with the rvs'o campuses being ph\'sically linked.